Prospects of the fruit and vegetable cooperative sector in the European union in the context of the new European model of agriculture

In recent years, the fulfillment of trade agreements, such as The Uruguay Round, and the acceptance of competitiveness and multifunctionality in basic issues of agricultural development as a supplier of other kind of goods related with the environment, both have implied the dismantling of agricultural protection systems that altered free competitiveness in international markets. Also, European people are becoming more aware of organic products and "Integrated Production Systems" ensuring agricultural practices which are more respectful with the environment. The accomplishment and guarantee of such a group of agricultural practices might underlie protection mechanisms that use food safety and environmental respect as an excuse to keep competitors away of the European Market. In this sense, the agrarian associationism is without any doubt a necessary process to be able to respond to these new challenges making viable an agriculture model based on the Family Farms and as the European example shows, where the agrarian cooperatives have been the basic instrument for the development of the most efficient agricultures. At the same time, they present a clear syntony with the Common Agricultural Policy, before the new model of multifunctional agriculture, not only committed with taking place better, with quality and alimentary security, with the environment, with the territory, and with the rural development.